Good to be Regular

Oct05
by Duf on October 5, 2017 at 5:28 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts, Today at the Gym

It has been a welcome change to have the time to get to the gym on a daily basis.  Exercise and exertion just helps me maintain my state of mind , as well as it can be maintained I guess.

Today’s source of irritation at the gym was two obese hispanic women that were being “trained” by a younger hispanic man.  All three of them obviously knew each other.  Instead of alternating usage on one machine, each woman commandeered two of the three smith machines for the entire 40 minutes I was working out.  Not only was their lack of consideration for others annoying, it was downright gross as both woman had a tendency to let out constipated sounding grunts and groans as they did their squats with a brutally heavy 50 pounds on the machine.  Hell I wanted to hit the button on the Lunk Alarm myself.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

15 neutral grip pull ups

60 second static wall hand stand

Seated reverse grip lat pull – 160lbs x 10

Belly to wall hand stand push up x 3

Seated reverse grip lat pull – 200lbs x 8

Belly to wall hand stand push up x 3

Seated reverse grip lat pull – 240lbs x 6

Belly to wall hand stand push up x 3

Seated low row – 130lbs x 10

Standing dumbbell shoulder shrug – 65lbs x 10

Seated low row – 170lbs x 10

Standing dumbbell shoulder shrug – 70lbs x 10

Seated low row – 210lbs x 6

Standing dumbbell shoulder shrug – 75lbs x 10

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Add Jeff to the list

Oct03
by Duf on October 3, 2017 at 5:15 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts, Today at the Gym

For some reason over most of my life I have been told that I look like a lot of different people.  That list includes some famous people like McGyver, Mark Fuhrman, Jeff Gordon, Billy Bob Thorton and Christopher Lloyd from one flew over the Cuckoos Nest era.  I have a woman I work with that swears I look almost exactly like her son when I have my hair short.  She also thinks I look like the host from “Cash Cabs”.

Well today I was told I look like “Jeff” by a woman at the gym.  I was doing seated hamstring curls when a woman that came out of the locker room  stopped abruptly, looked at me and said “Jeff?!” When I looked up and gave her a confused look she followed with “Are you Jeff?”  I politely said “nope, I’m Shawn”  “Oh…” she said as she scooted away, perhaps embarrassed by the confusion.

Today I did my first lower body weighted session in a looong time.  I’m sure my body will reward me with ample soreness the rest of the week.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio stretching

15 pull ups

Seated leg press – 190lbs x 12, 240lbs x 10, 270lbs x 8

Seated leg extension – 110lbs x 10, 130lbs x 10, 150lbs x 10

Seated leg curl – 100lbs x 10, 120lbs x 10, 140lbs x 8

One legged calf raise – 3 x 10 (both legs)

10 pull ups

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A return to normalcy?

Sep27
by Duf on September 27, 2017 at 5:24 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts, Failure

So it’s been a rather tumultuous 6-8 weeks in regards to my normal and preferred fitness routines.  It all basically went in the shitter.  First we had our 10 day road trip. Then I rolled into a very heavy work schedule which did not allow me most days to take my normal one hour gym lunch break.  We then dealt with the prep and aftermath of Hurricane Irma which left us without power for nine days. Finally, when we did come back to work I was immediately once again thrust into a hectic work environment that left no time for lunch hours.  Finally, I think I am emerging from that tunnel.

Now during all of this down time I had plenty of unconventional exercise like doing endless hours of prep, teardown and remediation from the CAT 4 hurricane.  When I weighed myself yesterday I was 5 or 6 pounds down from my pre-hurricane weight.  I’m not sure if it was water, fat, or muscle weight that left my body.

Of course I did chest on my first day back at the gym as chest and back are the two most important muscle groups in my world.  My decline smith bench numbers were surprisingly good considering my lack of gym attendance during the tail end of summer.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

Decline smith bench press – 110lbs x 12, 160lbs x 10, 200lbs x 5, 220lbs x 3, 250lbs x 1, 200lbs x 8, 160lbs x 15, 110lbs x 20

Dumbbell pull over – 55lbs x 10, 65lbs x 10

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Screw the sore IT

Aug29
by Duf on August 29, 2017 at 5:23 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts

My IT band has been quite sore since running on Saturday.  That soreness continued today but I decided to do lower body anyway.  Once I got warmed up the pain lessened.  I again combo’d Smith squats with dead lifts which isn’t a textbook combo but it works for me.  My numbers were decent based on my recent history.

Today’s Workout

15 chin ups

Smith squats – 105lbs x 10, 155lbs x 8, 195lbs x 4

Smith DL – 195lbs x 10, 285lbs x 5, 335lbs x 1, 355lbs x 1

Seated leg extension – 130lbs x 12

Seated leg curl – 120lbs x 12

Leg press calf extensions – 290lbs x 10

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Fatter = +5

Aug28
by Duf on August 28, 2017 at 5:33 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts, Endurance activities, Injuries, Lifting Heavy Things

So today for chest day I got on the one Smith machine that is a Hammer Strength model.  In addition to having it’s guide bar at a slight angle it also uses a fatter barbell, more like an axle bar.  As a result the bare weight of the bar is 20 pounds instead of the 15 pounds of the bars on the other two Smith machines.  I was able to once again snag the ab slant board to lock my body in for the pressing which helps me a lot.  The end result of all of this was a top end, smith adjusted 1RM of 260 pounds, five more than last week.  It took pretty much everything I had in the tank to get it locked out but I was successful.

I had less rest in between sets because my bench press buddy wasn’t there today.  Usually we are blabbing about something in between sets that allows some additional recovery time.

I ran 5K for the first time in about 5 weeks on Saturday.  My right IT band is not very happy with that decision today.

Today’s Workout

15 pull ups

Smith decline chest press – 110lbs x 12, 160lbs x 8, 200lbs x 5, 220lbs x 2, 240lbs x 1, 260lbs x 1, 240lbs x 2, 220lbs x 4, 200lbs x 7, 160lbs x 12

Pec dec – 110lbs x 10, 150lbs x 10, 170lbs x 10

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